In commercial food establishments, such as restaurants and coffee shops, the toasting of bread is a major operation. The use of the same type of toaster as is used in the home, which produces two or perhaps four slices of toasted bread in a single operation, with manual feed required for each toasting operation, is uneconomic.
As a consequence of the above, various types of commercial toasters have been developed. As a general rule, these toasters involve the use of an endless belt onto which the slices of bread to be toasted are placed, the endless belt passing between some type of heating element, and eventually discharging a slice of toasted bread. This type of equipment, too, has presented problems in such establishments.
If the endless belt type of toaster is operated continuously, then, particularly in non-peak hours, an unusable supply of toast is produced, requiring disposal of large quantities of food, or reheating of already made toast, generally resulting in an unacceptable product. On the other hand, if bread to be toasted is placed on the continuous belt type of machine only when one or more slices of toast are needed, than an inordinate delay results in obtaining the toasted bread, because such machines are not adapted to rapid production of individual slices of toast. Further, obviously, because of the length of the endless belt, and the time required for the heating elements to be warmed up, a plurality of heating elements are generally left on continuously, resulting in a waste of power, and further lack of economy.
Gravity fed toasters for toasting one or more slices of bread, and then allowing the toast to fall from the toaster mechanism upon completion of the toasting operation are known in the art. Various means to control the length of the toasting cycle are also well known, such as color sensing, heat sensing, timing, etc., and any or all of these types of sensing of completion of a toasting operating can be employed with these gravity fed toasting mechanisms, as well as with other types of toasters. For example, in each of U.S. Pat. Nos. Bersted: 1,852,398, Foster: 2,644,392, Bergman; 3,670,642, Lalancette: 4,098,178, and Wolf et al, 4,454,803, one or more pieces of bread are placed into a vertical slot which leads to the compartment where the bread slices are surrounded by heat producing elements to accomplish the toasting operation. One or more means are disclosed in each of these patents for holding the bread slices in place during the toasting operation. Among the means described in these patents are fingers, pivoted traps, forks, doors, etc., all placed at the bottom of the toasting compartment to hold the slices of bread in place until the toasting operation is completed. These means are then moved out of the way, and the toasted bread slice allowed to fall, by gravity, generally to some type of storage collector.
None of the patents just referred to, however, describe any means for a continuous feed of bread slices to be toasted, so as to make them adaptable for use in a commercial establishment, such as a restaurant. While magazine type feeds are shown, for example, in Fokakis U.S. Pat. No. 2,714,348, and Macchi U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,176, these magazine type feeds are not such as would allow for continuous, or semi-continuous, feeding of the bread slices by gravity.
Thus, the prior art does not show a toaster mechanism which allows for rapid production of one or more slices of toast, without an uneconomic build-up of toasted slices, while at the same time allowing for continuous toasting of bread slices, when such continuous operation is desirable.